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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- More Britons are crossing the Atlantic to take advantage of a falling dollar and with the pound closing in on $2 and cheap airfares abounding, that could continue.
Britons took 20 percent more trips to North America in the three months to October compared with the same time last year, according to figures published on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics.
Anecdotal reports from members of the Association of British Travel Agents support those numbers, and most of that growth is coming from trips to the U.S., and not Canada or Mexico.
"The biggest growth has been to the east coast of the U.S., suggesting that shopping trips to New York are doing extremely well," said Frances Tuke, a spokeswoman for the ABTA.
The pound has climbed about 15 percent against the dollar since last autumn to trade near its highest since 1992 and many are now speculating it could cross $2 soon.
The U.S. Commerce Department seems to have caught on to a trend as well and is spending millions of dollars on advertising to entice foreigners to visit the United States.
Trips by Britons elsewhere around the world were up by about one-fifth as well, while trips to Western Europe were down, the ONS said, which has coincided with a soaring euro.
North Americans' trips to Britain rose just two percent during the same period, less than a third of the overall growth in those to Britain by world travellers.
While the ABTA has not seen a similar slowing, Tuke said: "anecdotally, we're hearing that people coming to the UK are coming on more restricted budgets."
